Council archives, family history and building history
Council archive
You will find here a list of sources included the ones whose research is chargeable. As explained above the research service and fee pages should be linked to this area.
Rate books
Rate books are useful to establish how long someone lived at a particular address. The books give the names of rate payers listed by street, and detail the amount of rates they paid.
We hold rate books for:
- Chelsea 1779-1965
- Kensington 1779-1965
- combined until 1978
We also hold valuation books from 1880-1936.
Council minutes
We hold a full set of council minutes for the vestries of the separate boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea up to 1965, and the combined boroughs thereafter.
Electoral registers
We hold electoral registers for:
- Chelsea 1887-2000, including absent voters lists of 1918
- Kensington 1890-1982, including absent voters lists of 1918
- combined 1982 - the year before the current year
For the current and edited version, contact Kensington Central Library. You will need to know the street of the person you are searching for.
Family history
Parish registers
London Metropolitan Archives hold most of the borough's parish registers.
They have been digitised and uploaded to Ancestry, which is available at many local libraries including our Local Studies department.
Family history online resources
We hold the parish indexes for St Mary Abbotts and the parish records for St Luke’s (Chelsea) 1559-1850.
St Mary Abbots hold their own parish records.
Cemeteries
We don't hold burial records at our Local Studies and Archives department because most municipal cemeteries keep their own records.
Cemeteries & Crematoria in or near Kensington & Chelsea
- Non-denomenational
-
Brompton Cemetery
Address:
Fulham Road, London SW10 9UG
Location of Burial Registers:
- At the Cemetery, Tel: 020 7352 1201
- Email: [email protected]
- At http://www.deceasedonline.com/ (basic search free; otherwise a charge).
Date register begin
1840
Can you search yourself?
No
Gunnersbury Cemetery
Address:
Gunnersbury Avenue, London W3 8LE
Location of Burial Registers:
- At the Cemetery, Tel: 020 8992 2924
- Email: [email protected]
Date register begin
1829
Can you search yourself?
No
Kensal Green (All Souls) Cemetery
Address:
Harrow Road, London W10 4RA
Location of Burial Registers:
- At the Cemetery, Tel: 020 8969 0152
- Email: [email protected]
- At London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Rd, EC1R 0HB, Tel: 020 7332 3820
- (DL/T/41/1-40) for 1833-72
Date register begin
1833
Can you search yourself?
No
Kensington Hanwell Cemetery
Address:
Broadway W7
Location of Burial Registers:
- Gunnersbury Cemetery, Gunnersbury Avenue, London W4, Tel: 020 8992 2924
- Email: [email protected]
Date register begin:
1855
Can you search yourself?:
No
Putney Vale Cemetery
Address:
Stag Lane, Putney, SW15 3DZ
Location of Burial Registers:
- At the Cemetery, Tel: 020 8788 2113
- Email: [email protected]
Date register begin:
1891
Can you search yourself?
No
Brookwood Cemetery
Please see: https://brookwoodcemetery.com/grave-search-2/
- Jewish
-
Western Cemetery
Address:
Queens Elm Parade, Fulham Road, London SW3
Location of Burial Registers:
- At the Burial Society.
- Registers before 1868 destroyed by enemy action.
Date register begin
1815-84
Can you search yourself?
Yes by appointment
- Catholic
-
St Mary’s Cemetery
Address:
Kensal Green, Harrow Road, London NW10 5NU
Location of Burial Registers
- At the Cemetery, Tel: 020 8969 1145
- Email: [email protected]
- Also copy from 1858-76 at Catholic Family History Society
Date register begin
1858
Can you search yourself?
No
- Restricted
-
Royal Hospital Chelsea Burial Ground
Address:
Royal Hospital Road, London SW3
Location of Burial Registers:
London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Rd, London EC1R 0HB, Tel: 020 7332 3820
Date register begin:
1692-1856
Can you search yourself?:
Yes
Building history
The Survey of London for Kensington and Chelsea is available in our department on open access.
Drainage plans
We hold drainage plans for any address in the borough if there's been an application to run pipes into the public sewer.
The plans range:
- from simple sketches of the ground/basement floor to drawings of the whole building
- between the 1850s to the 1980s
Contact us to find out if we hold drainage plans for a property. If we do you can come and view the documents in person.
Street and trade directories
We hold directories for:
- Kensington 1888-1953
- Chelsea 1890-1939
- London Post Office directories 1902-1991.
We also hold:
- London directories 1778-1863
- some Royal Blue Books and Boyle’s Court guides 1873-1989
Rateable values
We hold material relevant to historic rateable values.
- Guidance on Kensington and Chelsea rateable value enquiries
-
The Local studies and archives department holds microfiche of the rateable value lists made in Kensington and Chelsea in 1963 and 1973, and sheets detailing any amendments made to them. These lists show both commercial and residential properties in the borough, and provide a description, a rateable value, and a gross value for each property. The 1963 valuation list covers 1 April 1963 to 31 March 1973. The 1973 valuation list covers 1 April 1973 to the end of domestic rating.Rateable valuation search
We offer a chargeable search service to provide information up to and including a full rateable value history 1963 to the end of domestic rating (more in complex cases). Please check our research fees:
Document
Please send us a letter or email specifying the address of the property you need us to search and the date(s)/period(s) to be covered, as well as your full name and address for our invoicing records.
We require payment in advance of the search, cheques made payable to ‘The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’ and posted to the address below, marking the envelope ‘Rateable Value’ (If sending a cheque separately from an initial search request, please make clear the search it relates to.) Alternatively, RBKC BACS payment details can be provided upon request.
Once we have received payment, we will complete the search and e-mail you a transcript of the results (occasionally attaching images of records as well, or instead, if this seems appropriate), and an invoice endorsed as paid.
We try to turn around enquiries in one to three working days from the receipt of a payment, however during busy periods it may take longer.